Laud is a formal verb meaning to praise someone or something highly, usually in public. To use laud in a sentence, name the person or thing and then the reason: Critics lauded the film for its quiet ending. It is always transitive and stays close to journalism and ceremony.
Laud at a glance
- Laud is a transitive verb; its forms are lauds, lauded and lauding.
- The passive is common in news writing: the plan was lauded as a model.
- The reason for praise usually follows for, as in lauded for her courage.
- Laud belongs to formal, public and journalistic writing, not casual talk.
- The commonest error is using laud without an object, as in the crowd lauded loudly.
- Its adjectives are laudable, meaning deserving praise, and laudatory, meaning full of praise.
What does laud mean?
Laud is a verb meaning to praise a person or thing highly, especially in a formal or public way. The Cambridge Dictionary entry for laud records this sense of formal praise, and the near-synonym extol carries much the same weight in elevated prose. Laud names spoken or written approval rather than the applause that follows a performance.
| Use | Plain meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Praise a person | Speak highly of someone | The judges lauded the young pianist. |
| Praise an achievement | Speak highly of a result or decision | The report lauded the team’s safety record. |
| Praise a quality | Single out a good feature | Reviewers lauded the novel’s restraint. |
Because laud is transitive, a sentence that names no object is incomplete; the praise must land on a person, a work or a decision. The word also implies that the praise is on the record, which is why it suits a written verdict far better than a passing compliment.
The word also implies an audience. A person can silently admire a painting, but lauding is done out loud or in print, where others can hear or read the verdict. That public quality is why critics, committees, judges and newspapers are its natural subjects, and why a private word of thanks is usually praise rather than laud.
How do you use laud in a sentence?
Laud never stands alone: it needs a person, a work or a decision as its object, and the reason for the praise slots in after a preposition.
| Pattern | Example | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| laud + noun | Critics lauded the director. | The core transitive pattern. |
| laud + noun + for + noun | They lauded her for her patience. | Names the reason for the praise. |
| laud + noun + for + -ing | The court lauded the firm for acting early. | A gerund can carry the reason. |
| be lauded as + noun | The scheme was lauded as a model. | The passive with as, very common in news. |
| be lauded for + noun | The deal was lauded for its speed. | A passive frame naming the praised quality. |
| laud + noun + as + noun | Reviewers lauded the book as a classic. | Active frame with as giving a verdict. |
Notice the division of labour between the two prepositions: for introduces the reason, while as introduces the label or category the praise places something inside. Choosing the wrong one changes the meaning, so a deal lauded for its speed is not the same as a deal lauded as a bargain.
Laud in a sentence: examples across contexts
| Context | Example sentence | Why this works |
|---|---|---|
| News report | Health officials lauded the clinic for its rapid vaccine rollout. | The passive-ready formal register suits reporting. |
| Award speech | We laud every volunteer who gave up a weekend. | First person plural makes the praise public and collective. |
| Review | The critic lauded the chef’s restraint with strong flavours. | Names a specific quality the praise rests on. |
| Workplace email | The director lauded the team for meeting a brutal deadline. | Formal but warm recognition inside an organisation. |
| Sports report | Commentators lauded the goalkeeper as the player of the match. | Uses the as frame to deliver a verdict. |
| Academic writing | Historians have lauded the reform for its unexpected durability. | Places the verb in measured analytical prose. |
| Conversation | My grandmother lauded the old doctor for never rushing her. | Shows the word can appear in speech when praise is deliberate. |
| Ceremony | The university lauded the graduates for their service to the town. | Fits the formal setting of a graduation address. |
| Editorial | The paper lauded the mayor’s courage but doubted her timing. | Balances praise with a reservation in one line. |
| Panel discussion | One panellist lauded the policy as brave; another called it reckless. | Sets the as frame against an opposing view. |
| Obituary | Colleagues lauded the late professor for mentoring a generation. | Carries the formal tone of a tribute. |
| Reported reaction | Supporters lauded the decision online, while critics questioned the cost. | Summarises public praise without endorsing it. |
| Museum label | Curators lauded the donor for keeping the collection intact. | Fits the formal, written register of an exhibit. |
| School report | The head lauded the pupils for their conduct on the trip. | Shows ceremonial praise in an everyday institution. |
Across all these contexts the pattern holds: a named subject lauds a named object, and the reason stays inside a for or as phrase.
Laud vs praise
Laud and praise say almost the same thing, but they live in different registers and build different sentences.
| Attribute | Laud | Praise |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Praise highly and formally | Express approval or admiration |
| Register | Formal, journalistic, ceremonial | Neutral, used everywhere |
| Grammar | Verb only | Verb and noun |
| Intensity | Strong and often public | Mild to strong |
| Typical subject | critics, judges, officials, papers | anyone, including friends |
| Typical object | a person, work, decision, reform | a person, effort, result |
Use laud for formal, public commendation and praise for ordinary approval. When the recognition is loud and collective, acclaim is the closer verb, and for official approval from a body or committee, commend fits best.
An honest limit: laud sounds stiff in everyday talk, so a plain sentence such as the coach praised the players will almost always read better. It is a verb, never a noun, so a phrase like give laud is a mistake, and it says nothing about whether the praise was deserved.
Grammar is the other divider. Praise works as both verb and noun, so a writer can give praise or praise a result, while laud has no noun, which forces give praise when a noun is needed. The verb also resists casual subjects: the critics lauded the film reads naturally, but the friends lauded my cooking sounds oddly grand.
Word forms and grammar of laud
| Form | Part of speech | Example |
|---|---|---|
| laud | verb, base form | The mayor lauded the volunteers. |
| lauds | verb, third person singular | She lauds every small kindness. |
| lauded | verb, past tense and participle | The album was lauded worldwide. |
| lauding | verb, gerund and participle | Lauding rivals costs nothing. |
| laudable | adjective, deserving praise | A laudable attempt, even if it failed. |
| laudatory | adjective, expressing praise | A laudatory review in every line. |
The two adjectives are easy to tell apart by their job: laudable describes the thing that earns the praise, while laudatory describes the words that give it. A laudable effort may attract a laudatory review, but the words and the achievement are not the same.
The root also survives in a set phrase. To laud someone to the skies means to praise them without limit, and it keeps the verb’s public, formal flavour. It is the one place where the word tolerates a degree of exaggeration that a news report would avoid.
Common mistakes with laud
The teacher lauded for her patience.→ The teacher was lauded for her patience. — Rule: laud is transitive; the passive needs was lauded.He lauded to the team.→ He lauded the team. — Rule: laud takes a direct object, with no to after it.She gave laud to the winner.→ She lauded the winner. — Rule: laud is a verb, so the noun must be praise.The crowd lauded loudly.→ The crowd praised the singer loudly. — Rule: laud needs a stated object; applauding is a different verb.The speech was fine, if a little laud.→ The speech was fine, if a little loud. — Rule: laud is a verb, while loud is the adjective for volume.
Practice using laud
- Fill in the blank: The judges ___ the young dancer for her control. (use the past tense)
- Choose the better word: My neighbour ___ my baking every single week. (lauds / praises)
- Correct the error: The report lauded for its honesty.
- Build a sentence: use laud in the passive with the phrase as a model.
- Spot the register: which sentence belongs in a formal citation? (a) The committee lauded her for a decade of service. (b) Everyone said she was, like, really great.
- Fill in the blank: Reviewers ___ the film as a quiet masterpiece.
- Choose the better word: Neighbours ___ her garden every summer. (laud / praise)
- Rewrite in the passive with as: Reviewers lauded the play as a triumph.
Answers
- lauded — the past tense takes the regular ending and keeps the object and the for phrase.
- praises — the weekly, personal approval is ordinary praise, not formal laudation.
- The report was lauded for its honesty. — Laud is transitive, so the passive needs was lauded.
- Sample: The new bridge was lauded as a model of low-cost engineering. — The passive with as delivers a formal verdict.
- (a) — laud belongs to formal, public commendation; the second option is casual and vague.
- lauded — the past tense reports what the reviewers did, with the film as the object.
- praise — informal, repeated approval is ordinary praise, not formal laud.
- The play was lauded as a triumph — the passive with as delivers the verdict formally.
The bottom line
Laud is a formal transitive verb meaning to praise someone or something highly, and using laud in a sentence means naming both the object and, usually, the reason with for. It appears most often in the passive voices of news and ceremony: the plan was lauded as a model. For everyday approval, praise is the plainer choice, and for a noun you must also switch, because laud has no noun form.
Frequently asked questions about laud
How do you pronounce laud?
It is said lawd, with a long aw sound and a silent final letter pattern, so it rhymes with flawed. It does not rhyme with loud, which has a different vowel. Keeping the two apart matters, because the adjectives laudable and laudatory share the same law sound, and a spoken mix-up can hide which word you meant.
What is the past tense of laud?
The past tense and past participle are both lauded, and the present participle is lauding. The third person singular is lauds. All the endings are regular, so there is nothing irregular to memorise: the committee lauded the plan yesterday, and the plan has been lauded ever since.
Is laud the same as loud?
No. Laud is a verb meaning to praise, while loud is an adjective meaning noisy. They are sometimes confused in speech because the vowels are close, but they are different words with different spellings. If you can replace the word with praise, you want laud; if you can replace it with noisy, you want loud.
What is the noun form of laud?
Laud has no noun form in modern English; use praise instead, as in she gave warm praise to the team. The related adjectives are laudable, meaning deserving praise, and laudatory, meaning expressing praise. A phrase such as give laud is therefore wrong, and the verb lauded is the simpler fix.
